Prep Football: Bulldogs look to bounce back in home opener

A week after taking their lumps at North Davidson, the Thomasville Bulldogs will attempt to right the ship this week at home against Mount Airy.
The 34-0 loss in Week 1 has done nothing to hamper assistant coach Dickie Cline's excitement about how his team handled itself in defeat.
"We felt good about some of the things we did," Cline said. "The things we were really concerned about were some of the things we did pretty well. There's promise in the way we fixed things and we have a chance to build on that."
The good news is that Thomasville does not have to face a 4-A squad that was one win away from playing for a state championship last year. The bad news is that it matches up this week with a perennial powerhouse coming off a 12-win season.
"Mount Airy's just like they've always been," said Cline. "They're well-coached and they execute well on both sides of the ball. It's a team that rarely beats itself due to the way they execute. It's another big challenge for us, but we're looking forward to it."
Cline said preparing his defense for the Granite Bears is quite a contrast from defending the dynamic playmakers of North. Offensively, the Bulldogs also will not have to be concerned with blocking 300-pound linemen as they did last week.
"Mount Airy is really similar to us in a lot of ways," Cline said. "They're about our size student-wise and they have a small squad like us. Hopefully we can match up a little better with them than we did North. They run a similar offense and a defense to what we run. In some ways, it's like preparing for ourselves."
One of the things the Bears will have to prepare for is a two-headed monster at quarterback. Thomasville unveiled a new-look offense last week that featured both senior Ike Marsh and sophomore Jalen Jenkins, who gives the Bulldogs a strong-armed passer. Marsh is the part of the duo that presents himself as a weapon in multiple facets of the offense.
Cline says the coaching staff will stick to the dual-quarterback system for now, but is open to the idea one could distance himself from the other with an excellent performance.
"I would say right now, yes," said Cline. "If one gets hot, we'll probably stay with that one. The thing Ike does is he plays so many positions. We'll probably have to feel that one out and see how things go."

Staff Writer Daniel Kennedy can be reached at 888-3575, or kennedy@tvilletimes.com.